Pages

Sunday, June 21, 2009

News From Oklahoma

We’re a week into our vacation, spending a week at my in-laws house in Oklahoma. As you may have seen at our travel blog, we’ve visited some unique and wonderful places on the way out and have enjoyed camping and hiking. We also enjoyed meeting up with some friends in Arkansas that we met through this blog!

It’s always interesting to me to see that I typically feel pretty good while we’re on vacation and rarely experience a crash, even with the physical exertion of walking and some short hikes. That tells me that the stresses and exertion of normal day-to-day life wear me out more than light exercise. The kind of traveling we do is good for me, too. We take these long car trips in part because it’s too expensive to fly out here to see my in-laws, but we also really enjoy our road trips, and it works out well for me and my older son (my younger son’s CFS is well-controlled with medication). We might hike one day, but then we spend the next day in the car – forced to stay off our feet. We nap, we listen to audio books or favorite music, and we look for unique places to stop for lunch. It’s a slow rhythm - certainly slower than our normal pace of life - that’s good for us.

In fact, yesterday was the first day I’d felt a little worn out. At first, I thought that was strange. After all that walking and hiking I’d done in the past week, here I am at my in-laws house – they’re in their 80’s – and I never even left the house yesterday! But then, I realized, I’m back into housekeeping mode here – planning meals, cooking, dishes, lots of laundry, etc.

I’m also struggling a bit with my Lyme treatment right now. I made the stupid mistake of just packing my probiotic with the rest of the medications (in a big backpack in the car). I think the heat killed off all the good little bugs, so my stomach has been in terrible shape, and I’ve had to skip a dose or two of antibiotics here and there to give my GI tract a chance to heal. Ken found me some non-dairy probiotic at the drugstore yesterday, so hopefully I’m back on track now. Once we leave here and start camping again, I will definitely keep it in the fridge.

Our visits here have been tough the last year or so, since my mother-in-law went into a nursing home. Her Parkinson’s has her mostly immobile now, confined to a wheelchair and unable to even talk much (Parkinson’s makes it hard to project the voice and be understood by others). She’s such a good, sweet woman. She heartily welcomed me into the family when we married and has always treated me like a daughter. It’s hard for all of us to see her so frail and unable to even communicate well. We try to bring her back to the house as much as possible while we’re here, but she can only stay a couple of hours at a time because she can’t get to the bathroom on her own. We hate that we’re usually 2000 miles away and can’t be here more often.

Well, time to leave the lovely wireless internet at Panera and head back to the house to make dinner. It’s been fun being back in the blog world for a few minutes!

I thought it was interesting what you said about how the stresses of day-to-day life cause a crash more than walking or short hikes while on vacation. Jessica seems to be handling more while on vacation or summer vacation and doing the things she enjoys, rather than the stresses of school and those routine activities.

It sounds like a great trip. I hope you're able to get back on the probiotics quickly so your stomach can become pain free. The visits with your mother-in-law sound painful. Its hard to see the ones we love suffer.

I found your blog through a cfids association link on facebook. I'm glad to read that you're able to do as much as you do...even though the limits are there. A trip. Now that's fantastic. And it sounds as if all of you were able to pace yourself well. I've had CFIDS since 1990 and it hit me with a wham, like a stroke, but wasn't one. I've not had much freedom from the house but I've improved much since the first 8 years so I can see there's always hope for that. Thank you for your inspiring posts.

Welcome to my blog! So glad that you found me. Thanks for sharing your story. CFS hit me hard and abruptly, too - one day I was active and healthy and the next I was horribly sick. I have improved somewhat over the past 7 years - partly with the help of medication and partly due to completely changing my lifestyle.

Yes, I was also thrilled with all that I could do while on vacation, though back home with the normal daily maintenance of life to deal with, there's not much energy left for fun-type exertion!

I have had Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS) since March 2002. Both of my sons also got ME/CFS at ages 6 and 10. Our younger son fully recovered after 10 years of mild illness. Our older son still has ME/CFS and also has Lyme disease plus two other tick infections. This blog is about how our family lives with chronic illness, with a focus on living and enjoying our lives in spite of these challenges.

About Me

I'm a freelance writer who loves to read and cook. My husband and I have two sons, and we all enjoy travel and being outdoors. My older son and I both have chronic illnesses, but we focus on finding joy in every day!

Follow me on Facebook and Twitter:

Subscribe To

Follow by Email

2017 LDN Conference

Affiliate Links

Note: This blog contains affiliate links. Purchases from these links provide a small commission to me, to help offset the time I spend writing for this blog, at no extra cost to you. I only include links to products I feel are helpful to ME/CFS patients (often those that have helped us) and are high-quality.